A celebration of 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Mechanics and Science would be remiss without a look at how the carrier of electricity finally yielded its secrets — paving the way to the quantum era
With many collisions and much crumpling of rock, down the ages. The story holds lessons for how the edges of continents are built and change over time.
Nigeria is pioneering the development of small, off-grid solar panel installations to bring reliable electricity to remote communities — setting a model for other African countries
Can genetically modified animals help ease the shortage of organs? After years of research into xenotransplantation, the field is at a turning point — yet risks and ethical issues remain.
UCLA’s Susan Perry has devoted decades to studying the fast-motion life of these New World primates and learning how the young acquire the skills they need to thrive
VIDEO: Knowable Magazine’s interviews with experts during the pandemic revealed many missed opportunities and blunders in the US response to Covid-19, which was marked by excess American deaths and disability. The experience does offer lessons on how to better prepare for what scientists call the inevitable emergence of the next global health emergency.
VIDEO: Tens of millions of people are living with long Covid. Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki explains the current state of play in the search for causes of, and treatments for, this potentially debilitating illness.
VIDEO: Even a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection can cause inflammation that disrupts neural communication, says Stanford neurologist Michelle Monje. Her concern is that Covid-19 may leave millions dealing with cognitive problems, from a loss of mental sharpness to lapses in memory, that prevent them from returning to their previous level of function.
VIDEO: Where do new diseases come from? As people increasingly push into remote areas, the risk of encountering new pathogens increases, says wildlife epidemiologist Jonna Mazet.
VIDEO: In August 2020, the Dome Fire burned more than 40,000 acres of the iconic species’ range in the Mojave Desert, leaving a graveyard of blackened trees. A massive replanting effort now underway hopes to return life to the fragile ecosystem by boosting numbers of the climate-threatened plant.
VIDEO: Delays, errors and a fragmented response initially kept public health officials in the dark about the spread of SARS-CoV-2. More tests and easy access could still play a critical role in slowing the virus.
VIDEO: New York Times science reporter Apoorva Mandavilli chronicles the rise of the delta variant, the latest of many twists in the pandemic that she’s covered since it began. Delta has left parents in an especially tough spot, with schools opening but young children still vulnerable.
VIDEO: The pandemic has highlighted the complex links between inequality, racism and disease risk in America. Harvard public health scholar David Williams explains.
VIDEO: Scientists expected the novel coronavirus would mutate and change. But its runaway spread means new, more dangerous variants are more likely to emerge. Harvard computational geneticist Pardis Sabeti explains.
North America’s largest bird disappeared from the wild in the late 1980s. Reintroduction work in the United States and Mexico has brought this huge vulture back to the skies. This is the story of its comeback.
A movement to provide hospital-level care for sick patients in their own beds, in the comfort of familiar surroundings, is growing in the United States — a trend already embraced in some other countries
Misinformation, market volatility and more: Faced with the need to mitigate risks that artificial intelligence presents, countries and regions are charting different paths
Picture your body: It’s a collection of cells carrying thousands of DNA errors accrued over a lifetime — many harmless, some bad, and at least a few that may be good for you.
The revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope and next-gen radio telescopes are probing what’s known as the epoch of reionization. It holds clues to the first stars and galaxies, and perhaps the nature of dark matter.
When the Sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, humanity still needs power. Researchers are designing new technologies, from reinvented batteries to compressed air and spinning wheels, to keep energy in reserve for the lean times.
This record-setting year for heat saw stunning auroras, a map of a brain, a Dengue epidemic, the first look at rocks from the far side of the Moon, an AI energy scramble and more
Neurologists have grappled with a cluster of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis cases in France, where a fondness for a toxic wild mushroom may hold the answer